After work, I got a ride from my coworker over to the train station. After taking public transportation for a while, it was quite clear that trains were very unreliable. They are usually late until you, yourself are running late, then they'll be sure to leave right on time! I have a story about that that I'll share with you later in this recap. I've become increasingly disappointed with Amtrak, so I took the Metrolink train into Union Station. From there I caught the LAX Flyaway bus over to LAX.
Metrolink Irvine to Union Station: $10
LAX Flyaway: $9.75
My red eye flight with JetBlue was scheduled to leave at about midnight so I had plenty of time to pass at the terminal. There was quite a bit of construction going on in terminal 3. It looked like they'll be putting in a Shake Shack which will be a great addition to any terminal. I didn't want to spend too much money on dinner, so I bought a pre-made sandwich from Angel City Brewery. I didn't realize that they had a bar here. It would've been nice back when I was still drinking. The sandwich tasted pretty good, but the tomatoes made the bread really soggy.
Quick dinner
After finishing the sandwich, I walked around the terminal to check out the rest of the construction progress. I picked up some snacks and water before finding a spot for the long wait. The flight was delayed a bit and eventually I ran into a couple of my friends that were also headed out to Orlando for the Star Wars races.
Snacks and water
4/21 Friday
As soon as we landed and got off of the plane, I started heading for the Disney Magical Express bus. I made a quick pit stop at a restroom before heading down to the first floor of side B. The escalator down was blocked off, so I had to use the elevator. Once I reached the welcome center, they scanned my magic band and directed me to one of the lanes. I actually had to hurry as the motorcoach leaving for Caribbean Beach was about to head out. It made a stop at Art of Animation and Pop Century before arriving at the Caribbean Beach resort.
Custom House
Originally I was planning to head to the expo expecting my room to not be ready. However I received a text with my room information, so I set out to find my building. The layout of the resort was somewhat hard to figure out as there were so many trees. At first I was at the Custom House bus stop which was the wrong place to wait. I had to cross over to the nearby bus stop at Barbados. That bus stop was very crowded and I had just missed the internal resort bus, so I decided to walk it. I had to use Google Maps, but eventually I found the trail around the lake and followed that over to Trinidad South, the southernmost point of the resort. It was a pretty long walk, but at least it was a scenic walk.
Warning signs
Caribbean Cay
My room was in building 38 of Trinidad South. It was one of the pirate-themed rooms. The room decor was awesome, good enough to be a part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride! I especially liked the bed frame and barrel shaped outer casing for the mini fridge. These rooms would be perfect for any kid! Yo ho yo ho, a pirate's life for me!
Trinidad South
Building 38
Yo ho yo ho... a pirate's life for me!
I took a quick shower and relaxed a bit before heading back out to go to the race expo. There was a nearby bus stop for Trinidad South where I waited for the expo bus which would take me over to ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. This would also be the bus stop where I would catch the morning bus for the races.
The expo was pretty standard for the Walt Disney World races. First I went into the HP Field House to collect my race bib and shirts before heading over to the J Center (formerly known as Jostens Center) for the expo. I checked out the official merchandise and thankfully didn't find a thing that I'd considered a must purchase item. On the way out I checked out the cantina which was a nice addition that would replace the area that had been used for guest speakers. The prices were pretty steep. Even so I was tempted to buy a pineapple soft serve which came in a Chewbacca Stein.
Wretched hive of scum and villainy!
25 dollars?! We can almost buy our own ship for that! :)
Tie Fighter popcorn container
I hopped on the bus which took me back to Caribbean Beach. I had eaten yet, so I decided to go look for lunch. I thought the bus would stop at the Old Port Royale stop, but it didn't. So I got off at Trinidad North and walked over. None of the food looked too appealing, but I ended up getting the Caribbean salad with chicken at the Montego's Deli. It was an underwhelming salad, but it was good enough to tide me over to my next meal.
Caribbean salad with chicken
Back at my room, I went through the expo haul which consisted of nothing but the essentials. There wasn't even the usual Clif Bar in the bag! The shirts were pretty decent this year. Although the designs were a bit small, I liked them better than last year's designs.
10k shirt
Half marathon shirt
Dark Side Challenge shirt
I watched a bunch of TV and ended up dozing off a bit. I was super tired, but it was getting kind of late, so I had to muster up the will to go out and find dinner. First I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race. The weather would be super humid, but I went with a cotton standard black and white storm trooper t-shirt. I can never race well in high humidity, so I might as well look good! :)
10k flat runner
On the way over to the Old Port Royale food court, I took the underpass instead of crossing the street. They had put up a figure pole at each end. It was for pedestrian traffic only, so they could be there possibly to stop carts and bicycles.
For dinner, the only menu that interested me was at the Bridgetown Broiler. They had the standard baked chicken, carved turkey, and grilled salmon that you can find at Disney food courts. However I wanted to try something new, so I had their shrimp curry over ice. I didn't expect much, but it was not bad!
Shrimp curry
4/22 Saturday
Getting up for these east coast races are tough! I forced myself to get up at the sound of the first alarm instead of snoozing and waiting for the backup alarms. I didn't want to run the risk of missing my race! I got ready and made my way over to the bus stop. The bus was pretty full by the time it had picked us up. Some of the folks at the next stop had to stand.
This was the first Walt Disney World race where we were dropped off at the Magic Kingdom parking lot. Everything was well organized. For security check at this race, they didn't consider a race belt a bag, so I had to get into the no-bag line. The lines were pretty long for the photo ops with Star Wars characters, so I bypassed that until after the race. I did try to get in on the Stormtrooper crew photo, but just like last year, I was a tad late. I then headed for the corrals. I used one of the portapotties next to the corrals before going in. I did a quick warm-up before heading to the front to look for familiar faces.
10k start line
I must have been itching to go as I ran the first mile faster than I had wanted. It was a minute faster than I had expected for the perceived effort. I took that as a good sign that my legs were getting much better, but I slowed it down a bit for the next mile. I started developing the headache that I normally get when running in high humidity during mile 3. I had to pull over for a walk break. I would go on to take 8 more walk breaks. I was pouring water over my head every chance that I could.
10k finish line
Finish: 53:53
Click here for my Garmin data.
After collecting my awesome finisher medal and getting my post race drinks and snacks, I made my way over to the photo op lines for the Star Wars characters. I took a picture with Vader, Kylo Ren, BB-8, and Captain Phasma. I skipped the line for Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt. I didn't realize that they had a board with the approximate waiting times until I was leaving.
10k medal
Post race goodies
Vader!
Does that look like the calcinator to you?!
It's the droid we're looking for!
Captain Phasma
Waiting times
After getting back to my room, I got cleaned up and ate my post race goodies while contemplating about going to one of the parks. Since I was feeling pretty exhausted, I ended up taking another nap instead. I woke up to go eat lunch at Disney Springs. As soon as I got off of the bus, I noticed that there were many runDisney banners up with fun facts. I first checked out Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar. I saw a pretty interesting video on the story behind the place. Unfortunately it was more for drinking as they had a very limited appetizer section on their menu.
Fun fact banners at Disney Springs
Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar
I then walked over to my favorite restaurant, Raglan Road Irish Pub. Since I was by myself, I went straight into the bar area and looked for a seat. All of the good seats were taken, but I was able to find a seat. However the view of the live dancing and entertainment was blocked from where I was sitting. I ordered the usual Full Irish Breakfast and an iced tea. The bartender also brought out some Irish Soda Bread for me to snack on while I waited for my food.
Full Irish breakfast
It was then back to my room to relax and watch a bunch of NBA playoff games for several hours. I laid out my flat runner for tomorrow's race before heading back out for dinner. Just as I shut my room door, I remembered that I had forgotten to wear my magic band! I had my wallet with me so I could still pay for dinner. I figured that I would just swing by the custom house after dinner to get another room key.
Half marathon flat runner
For dinner I ate at the Bridgetown Broiler over at the Old Port Royale again. I got their ropa vieja. It was some pretty good stuff! It literally translates to old clothes in Spanish, but it's stewed beef with vegetables. It was loaded with flavor and went well over rice.
Ropa vieja
Over at the custom house, I spoke with one of the cast members at the online check-in counter. After she saw my ID, she gave me another magic band. Apparently she had trouble programming it for my room. After she was done, I made the walk back to my room in the counterclockwise direction just to mix things up.
Aruba, Jamaica... oooh, I wanna take ya!
The magic band wouldn't open my room, so I headed back towards the custom house one more time. This time I went to the bus stop and waited for the internal resort bus. The lady that helped me was extremely apologetic as she saw me walking up to the counter. I believe she got her manager to help out. Once the magic band was properly programmed, she got one of the drivers to drive me over to my building in case it still didn't work. Thankfully it worked this time.
4/23 Sunday
The buses started running 30 minutes earlier than they did yesterday, so I woke up and got ready 30 minutes sooner. Once again I skipped the photo ops with the characters. They had the corral area closed until about an hour before the race start. I waited there with a bunch of other eager runners.
When I got into the corral, I made my way up to the front. I sat down and waited for a while before some of my friends showed up. One of them was running in costume which was a very cool mashup of Russell from Up and Darth Maul!
Darth Russell! @blingwhore
Half marathon start line
I made sure to not run that first mile too fast. However it was still too fast as I felt pretty fatigued during the next mile. The headache from the high humidity was starting earlier than yesterday. Even though it turned out to be a lousy race on my part, I liked the new course. It had many of the portions of the Walt Disney World Marathon course in January. The course hit Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot. The left ankle got pretty sore in the final miles, so it was a slow jog to the finish line. It was good to hear a shout out from Rudy, one of my favorite race announcers!
Half marathon finish line
Finish: 2:13:20
Click here for my Garmin data.
The humidity really did a number on me. After picking up my half marathon medal, I made my way through the finisher chute picking up the usual bottle of water and Powerade. I then made my way to the challenge tent where they confirmed my identity before awarding me any challenge medals. I assumed that the volunteers would give me whatever medals I earned. I was given the Kessel Run medal, but not the Dark Side Challenge medal. I was so out of it that I continued to walk through and picked up a banana and snack box. I then got my bag from gear check and made my way over to take a picture with Boba Fett. A runner from Germany was asking me questions about the Kessel Run. She wanted to know where in the movie was it mentioned. She was going to go home and re-watch it. It was during our conversation where all of a sudden I realized that I didn't get my Dark Side Challenge medal. I congratulated her on her races, hopped out of the line, and headed back in an attempt to go get my medal. I went as far as I could before a volunteer stopped me. I pleaded my case. She tried to send me away to the information tent, but I further pleaded my case so she escalated the matter to the volunteer leader where it finally made it to a runDisney employee. I probably looked honest and believable to her, so she grabbed a medal and hung the medal around my neck. I thanked her for taking my word for it and that the humidity really turned my head to mush. She was very understanding.
Half marathon medal
Dark Side Challenge medal
Kessel Run medal
After getting all of my medals, I decided to just skip the photos with the characters and go back to my hotel room. Once again I ate some of the snacks and drank the Powerade. I was feeling pretty lethargic, but I had to hop in the shower and get ready to check out of my room. After I packed up, I caught the internal resort bus over to the custom house to wait for the Magical Express motorcoach for my ride to the airport.
Once I arrived at the airport, I made my way up to the ticket counter floor. I was feeling pretty hungry, so I decided to grab a quick lunch at McDonald's before going through security. I got the usual Big Mac, french fries, and 10 piece chicken McNuggets. I used the app for the fries to be free. The girl that took my order didn't bother to give me any sauce for the McNuggets. It's a good thing that I'm fine with eating them plain.
McDonald's
I almost got in line for the TSA before I realize that I still needed to print out my boarding pass. I've gotten way too accustomed to having my pass on my phone. Also it took me a while to realize that Frontier Airlines was on side A.
It ended up not necessary to hurry with my meal. The flight was eventually delayed for about 3 hrs as the maintenance crew deemed our original plane unsafe, so we had to wait for another plane to come in from another flight. When it came time to board the plane, it was clear that the natives were getting restless. Some of the pre-boarders were getting into a loud verbal argument with the gate attendant.
I quickly found out why Frontier Airlines flights were so cheap even having to pay for carry-on baggage. Everything was so small. The seats were small, as was the space underneath the seat in front of you for your personal item. The tray table was the size of an envelope, definitely not big enough for a laptop. The seats also did not recline, so it was next to impossible to fall asleep. The girl sitting in the middle seat must have a bladder the size of a pea. Every so often, she would tap me on my shoulder to let her out. So even if I managed to start dozing off, I would be awoken by her.
Once I landed in LAX and had gotten off of the plane, I made a quick stop at the restroom before heading out. I went outside and waited at the median to catch the LAX Flyaway bus over to Union Station to catch an Amtrak train. It took forever for the bus to show up as it had encountered heavy traffic enroute. We then ran into heavy traffic as we entered into Downtown LA. The bus driver did the best he could, weaving in and out of traffic as there was most likely a car accident, but we didn't get to the Patsaouras Transit Plaza until about 10:05 pm. The last Amtrak train for the Pacific Surfliner route was scheduled to leave at 10:10 pm. Some of the people on the bus were also trying to catch the same Amtrak train. They had luggage in the cargo hold and was shouting profanities at the driver to open up the doors. The driver wasn't supposed to do that. They actually have another guy at the plaza where it was his job to take care of the luggage. I didn't stick around to see what happened. I got my ticket scanned and headed for the train tunnels. It was just leaving as I got there. A few riders ahead of me were yelling at the train to wait, but it just kept going... right on time. Oh well, on to plan B. I took the Metro Gold Line all the way out to Azusa and was going to grab a Lyft ride home from there. Along the way, I was able to get somebody to come out and pick me up at the station. Public transportation is not 100% reliable since it does not run around the clock.
LAX Flyaway: $9.75
Metro Gold Line: $1.75
